I'm anxiously waiting for my copy from Gamefly (should be today)! I am a huge fan of GOW and I can already see that it got its influence from that series. As long as the dodging is spot on, then I am in for one hell of a good time (seasoned with some frustrating moments). I am glad that this one has a new game style that is different from previous games in the series. I even welcomed the new Metroid: Other M game for the reason that if you get the hang of the controls...the game works! To complain about this game not starting off in a castle is laughable! If you enjoy this style of game, then play it! Damn, is that hard to figure out? Another reason to get into this game is that it is supposed to take over 20 hours to truly complete! I am all for that. I hate beating this style of game to early and then I never go back to play it again.

Just clarify my point: I'm completely fine if you don't like this game because it doesn't pay as much homage to previous Castlevanias. But it's dumb to complain about a Castlevania having no castle-zones. Especially considering Rondo of Blood and several other un-castle-like zones prevalent within the series.

@Sally Wong - you dislike this Castlevania because their isn't a castle? Be serious. It makes me wonder if you knew about the Castlevania series before Symphony of the Night. Because if you want to get technical, their was several zones throughout the Castlevania series that either weren't in a castle at all, or they didn't even remotely feel like they belonged in a castle. Rondo of Blood (aka Dracula X Chronicles) is an outstanding example. In the prologue you fight Death on a wagon, which speeding through a forest. In Stage 1 your fighting your way past Dracula's minions in a burning town on your way to the castle. Hell, you even get to fight Death on the masts of a ship in later stages. Bottom line is that the castle isn't what makes Castlevania. It's the tone of the game.

And let's face it; Castlevania needed a make over anyway. Every previous 3D Castlevania has been no where near as popular as their 2D counterparts. Something had to give in order to put out a good 3D Castlevania.

i picked it up today but havent played it due to a massive headache, idk about the game itself but the collectores edition was impressive in the sense that it all came package in a book form. like its made to look like a book and the art book starts it off then you flip and its the sound track in a page that has a sleeve and the track list on the opposite page and then you flip the page again and its the game disc. It nice that they put some though into the way they packaged it but i just hope the games decent.

It looked great.. It got pretty weird with a large horse popping out of a shining light in a "Come with me if you want to live" Attitude. It looks a bit cheesy to me. Not so sure about the game from what I've seen.

Great Game! Definitely give it an 8.5/10. Graphics may not be superior to GOW, but Im definitely getting way more gameplay hours (15-20hrs) more then GOW3! Plus, I actually get to use my advance moves instead of repeating the same thing over and over again...

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: boring, repetitive, predictable, and has nothing in common with any other Castlevania game that you have previously played.

They even took the castle out of Castlevania. This is religious gothic quest of some kind. The first 15 minutes indicates to me, that this is nothing more than a rental at best. On what I viewed, I can only give it a " Rent Me First " score, of 7 out of 10 !